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Independence

In her latest post, Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner) explores how direct instruction approaches can support pupils with ADHD and others with limitations in working memory. I recently had the opportunity to attend a CPD session on ADHD delivered by our area Ed. Psych. This is a condition which I encounter on a daily basis and is…

In her latest guest post, Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner), Director of Improvement & CPD and English teacher, explores how the principles of the EEF’s guidance report on metacognition and self-regulation looks in the English classroom. Metacognition and self-regulation are without a doubt some of the latest buzz words in education. The 2018 EEF report on this…

Wobbling our way to Independence This is a guest post from Zoe Enser (@GreeboRunner) Director of CPD and Improvement at Seahaven Academy. Let me take you back to the summer of 1970 something. It was my seventh summer and, much to my parent’s growing frustration, I was still inexplicably unable to ride my bike without…

Caveat alert! The following is based on my context as a secondary school Geography teacher. I have had some interesting discussions recently about noise in classrooms. The question often centres on whether pupils should work in silence. As is so often the case the discussion quickly becomes polarised despite the fact that neither side actually advocates…

At our school, we build our idea of excellent teaching and learning around four pillars. The first two, challenge and feedback, are fairly uncontroversial but the other two, engagement and independence, sometimes raises eyebrows. I think this is because the two terms get so misused in education out of a desire to make everything something…

Reading “The Confident Teacher” this week by Alex Quigley (@HuntingEnglish) started me thinking about the idea of Independence. It is one of the key pillars of teaching and learning that we focus on at my school but it is something that still causes confusion.

Like every other school in the country that I have come across we are trying to build more independence in our students. I fear that as schools and teachers have become more accountable for results the temptation to spoon-feed has increased; these are our results, not theirs. As we hurtle towards our first exams of…